Separatist sources confirmed the loss of the town hall in Mariupol, a city with a population of nearly 500,000. The city was the scene of a rebel attack on troops last week that left three militants dead. The separatists had held the town hall since April 13.
"The town hall is liberated and can function normally," interior minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page.
In Artemivsk, just north of the rebel-held hub of Donetsk, the defence ministry said in a statement that nearly 100 separatists "opened fire with automatic weapons, machine guns and used grenades" in the attack on the military base.
It said a soldier was wounded, but not critically. "The attackers were repelled and suffered significant losses," acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said in his own statement.
The interior ministry confirmed the rebel assault and claimed it was led "by a Russian soldier".
There was no immediate confirmation by non-government sources of the incident in Artemivsk.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian government announced it had re-taken Svyatogorsk, a small eastern village of 5,000 inhabitants — but puzzled locals told AFP there had never been any rebels there.
Kiev accuses Moscow of being behind the insurgency roiling east Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin denies that, though last week dropped a similar denial over the use of Russian forces in Crimea, which Russia annexed in March.
Moscow has said it could strike back if it saw its interests in Ukraine attacked, warning of similar action as in 2008, when it invaded Georgia with tanks.
Russia has an estimated 40,000 troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border.
[timesofindia.indiatimes.com]
24/4/14
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- Kiev's actions in east Ukraine will 'have consequences': Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that deployment of military in east Ukraine by the Kiev authorities was a crime against its own people that will "have consequences."
"If Kiev really began to use the army against the country's population... that is a very serious crime against its own people," Putin said, calling the current pro-West authorities a "junta."
"That is simply a punitive measure that will without question have consequences... including for our inter-governmental relations," he added, without specifying the nature of consequences.
[hurriyetdailynews.com]
24/4/14
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L'armée russe est sur le pied de guerre à la frontière avec l'Ukraine après que des blindés ukrainiens ont franchi un barrage de pro-russes à Sloviansk....
ReplyDeleteLes affrontements entre les troupes ukrainiennes et les séparatistes à Sloviansk "ont fait jusqu'à cinq morts" dans les rangs des insurgés et un soldat ukrainien a été blessé, a annoncé le ministère ukrainien de l'Intérieur, en ajoutant que trois barrages séparatistes à l'entrée de la ville ont également été "détruits". La ville de Sloviansk est, depuis plusieurs jours, entièrement contrôlée par les insurgés pro-russes.
Le président russe Vladimir Poutine a aussitôt dénoncé cet assaut qu’il a qualifié de "crime grave" et il a averti que cette opération aurait "des conséquences pour les gens qui prennent ces décisions"...... Suivez la situation en direct......http://www.france24.com/fr/20140424
24/4/14
Ukraine forces kill up to five rebels, Russia starts drill near border...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - U krainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow rebels on Thursday as they closed in on the separatists' military stronghold in the east and Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears its troops would go in.
Under an international accord signed in Geneva last week, illegal armed groups in Ukraine, including the rebels occupying about a dozen public buildings in the largely Russian-speaking east, are supposed to disarm and go home.
But they have shown no signs of doing so and on Thursday the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said its forces backed by the army had removed three checkpoints manned by armed groups in the separatist-controlled city of Slaviansk.
"During the armed clash up to five terrorists were eliminated," it said in a statement, adding that one person had been wounded on the side of the government forces.
A rebel spokeswoman in Slaviansk said two fighters had died in a clash in the same area, northeast of the city center...............http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/24/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA3L11A20140424?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
24/4/14